Are you a slave to getting your daily caffeine fix?
Coffee has never really appealed to me over the years despite working in various jobs where EVERYBODY was drinking the stuff. I recall doing an internship for my undergraduate studies at the County Courthouse in my hometown of Bolivar, Tennessee back in the early 90′s and the workers there were stunned to hear I didn’t drink coffee. My dad owned three restaurants at the time and he CONSTANTLY drank it black–about two pots all by himself before noon! He said he needed it to help him get his day going and keeping it going. Riiiiiigggght!
Not me. Coffee was just plain disgusting and I never could acquire a taste for it despite all the cream and sugar in the world. Even in this day and age of the popularity of Starbucks, I don’t do cappuccino or even mocha-flavored candy because that coffee taste is much too strong for my palate. EWWW! But I did have one source of caffeine that was my vice for many years before I started livin’ la vida low-carb–sugary sodas!
I’ve told the stories about how I used to drink upwards of 16 cans of Coca-Cola a day–all that high-fructose corn syrup and caffeine did a real number on my weight and health and I’m surprised that bad habit didn’t kill me. Only by the grace of God and because of the principles I learned in 2004 from the late great Dr. Robert C. Atkins in his book Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution was I able to overcome my sugar addiction by switching to drinking lots of water and diet sodas instead.
However, one thing I didn’t quite realize at the time when I first switched from sugary sodas to diet sodas was that additional step to go caffeine-free as well. It never really dawned on me how addicted I was to the caffeine probably more so than the sugar until I tried to drink Diet Rite for the first time instead of Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi. Diet Rite is both sugar-free (sweetened with Splenda and ACE-K) AND caffeine-free as opposed to those major brands sweetened with aspartame and full of caffeine.
What happened to me in those first couple of days after making the switch? Jittery, sudden weakness, dizziness, balance issues, anger outbursts, and worst of all–the most excruciating, splitting headaches of my life! It was BAD…REALLY REALLY BAD! And it made me wonder if it was even worth all the hassle of switching to the caffeine-free version. But I reasoned that I was able to go from sugary to diet, so surely I could get off of caffeine as well despite my love for Diet Coke with Splenda.
What’s so wrong with caffeine, you say? Well, you gotta treat it like the drug that it is. It’s a stimulant which is why you are able to get an immediate burst of energy and concentration when you first get it in your system. And yet what comes up, must come down and that crash can be as bad as cocaine or meth addiction if you ask me. It’s a ruthless cycle that people go through trying to come off this stuff for good.
Did you know caffeine can make your stomach acidity worse which can give you the symptoms of GERD? Yep, despite your low-carb efforts to control acid reflux symptoms, caffeine will do you in. Once your body becomes used to certain amounts of caffeine, you keep putting more and more of it in your mouth to get the same “buzz” and that’s bad news for your body. People who use caffeine to excess generally consume over 500mg daily. But it’ll probably vary from person to person based on their ability to handle it or not. It has even been firmly established in the scientific literature that caffeine can raise insulin levels, so that’s reason enough for me to avoid it as much as I possibly can!
How much caffeine is in a typical beverage? Let’s see:
COFFEE: 95mg
SODA: 40mg
ENERGY DRINK: 125mg
Heck, even chocolate has 15mg per serving, so you have to be mindful of your intake of that too, even those yummy sugar-free, low-carb versions. Giving up caffeine can seem virtually impossible to someone who realizes they are an addict for the first time. But it’s NOT impossible to beat this addiction just like you’ve overcome your sugar addiction on your healthy low-carb lifestyle. There are four relatively easy and painless ways to get past it and I’m happy to share those with you today.
1. Incrementally decrease your caffeine intake
People make the mistake of trying to cut out all of their caffeine intake right away and that’s a surefire way of bringing on those severe side effects we’ve talked about unnecessarily. Try drinking one or two LESS cups of coffee, tea, or soda for a week, then drop another cup or two for another week, and another and another until you are consuming little to no caffeine at all. Replace those with other non-caffeinated beverages or decaffeinated versions of the same drink you enjoy.
2. Reach for other things to give you that “buzz”
People like my father think they NEED coffee or they can’t function properly. But I bet if he simply started drinking more water or eating healthier foods that he could feel 100% better while probably having a clearer mind than he has on all those cups of coffee each day. Right daddy-o?!
3. When a caffeine-induced headache hits, take a nap
You’re overcoming a serious addiction to caffeine, so your body may need rest to recuperate and heal itself. Try going to bed a little earlier since you will no longer be pumping gobs of caffeine into your body keeping it awake at night. Make a goal to sleep an hour longer than usual and take advantage of all the health benefits of additional sleep.
4. Supplement your diet with essential vitamins
If you aren’t already taking a regular multivitamin as part of your healthy low-carb lifestyle, then get on one right away (iron-free for men, by the way!). Some of the essential vitamins to restoring your health from the damage caffeine has caused include vitamin C, pantothenic acid, B complex vitamins, and magnesium. If your multivitamin doesn’t contain these, then consider adding them each to your daily supplementation.
In the end, eliminating caffeine from your diet completely will reap you so many health benefits that will last a lifetime and make your body function at the highest level it was created to be. If you have any additional tips for overcoming caffeine addiction, then please feel free to share those in the comments section below. Go caffeine-free–it’s the way to be as you can see!
9-24-08 UPDATE: Now warning labels are being proposed for high-caffeine energy drinks because of the detrimental side effects of the caffeine. This is only the beginning of a huge movement against caffeine that’s coming. Watch for it!
